- May 10 2021
- 5 mins
India Edtech Opportunity and Innovation
In the last year alone, ed-tech companies in India managed to pick up USD 1.5B-2B dollars in funding. As per the Tracxn report of 2020/2021, India has 6000+ registered ed-tech ventures, of which 300+ are based in Pune. This does not come as a surprise since Pune is considered the country’s education capital. The quantum of funding and the volume of ed-tech companies indicate enough that education appears to be an attractive sector both for founders and investors. The Indian education focussed startups seem to be chasing a $10 Bn Edtech/Education Opportunity. As per the Inc $2 report, the ed-tech market of India is estimated to grow 3.7x in the next five years, from $2.8Bn (2020) to $10.4 Bn (2025). It is an astounding available market size which should be a strong motivation for world-class education technology solutions to see growth in India. If you consider the latest BARC and Nielsen report about the consumption of education content along with the time being spent on the same, it asserts a 25-30% increase in the time spent on education apps in the first three months of lockdown. Furthermore, for a common understanding, edtech does not end with e-learning and test prep. It has multi-faceted problems to solve, and hence technology reflects on impacting multiple avenues of the education value chain.
It is also essential to understand the various forms and factors in which edtech is deployed in the ecosystem. It is a stretch that impacts right from K12 to higher education. The people at large will understand the solutions in these sectors. However, a significant amount of edtech solution development and delivery also happens in the skill development and corporate learning ecosystem. In contrast, ventures like pepstudy.com would be playing in the K12 space. The companies like simulanis.com are leading the edtech learning into the corporate sectors. Also, there is a solid value demonstrated by institutions that have a symbiotic engagement with their alumni. Hence the rise of alumni connecting technology solutions can bring the whole current and past ecosystem together for institutions.
Next in line are the platforms that facilitate career development and job readiness for various edtech stakeholders. Our association is with one such venture, namely teenzclap.com, which works with colleges to upskill students to be career-oriented more than just being job-ready. A major operational challenge with any decent-sized university is its end-to-end campus management. Here is an opportunity that is being well leveraged by edtech companies that automate the entire campus management processes right from admissions to student exits and claim settlements. Admissions to delivery of programs to placements: the whole cycle is being completed by edtech ventures with easy-to-use professional solutions.
Considering the technologies that edtech companies are leveraging, they are at the forefront of the cutting edge. One can see how augmented, and virtual reality is being deployed or how job matches using artificial intelligence are being done. The use of gamification in K12, Higher ed, and corporate learning is increasing by the day as web apps, audio, and video content are being created and consumed in the number of bytes that one cannot count. Next in line is the evolution of robotics with AI in edtech leveraged by an edtech venture to accelerate learning and development.
There are four enablement areas that edtech has a tangible impact today. Companies have exceptional solutions for admissions management. Next in the process are edtech ventures who facilitate the deployment of the academic program for students to consume the courses. For assessment purposes, the technology advent is seen in the solutions of companies developing new-age technology. Finally, to accentuate the learning, to get a job, or become an entrepreneur, edtech companies play a significant role for the same.
To sum it up, it is crucial to understand why edtech is successful globally and the haunting question for the Indian ecosystem. Education institutions and mentors of change always back the most successful edtech innovation systems. In India, this responsibility is shouldered by MiraiNxt, pledging to make a substantial impact to scale up edtech ventures from India to the world.
